Total Covid-19 cases in Geary County continue to decrease while vaccination rates increase

The Junction City Union, Kan.
·2 min read

Oct. 11—There are currently 29 known active cases of COVID-19 in Geary County, according to the Geary County Health Department.

Four new cases of the delta variant have been identified by the health department, raising the total to 142.

The health department also listed a total of five new recoveries from the virus.

The health department's unofficial death count rose one to 38.

There have been a total of 20 known breakthrough cases of COVID-19 — cases where someone who was vaccinated contracted the virus nonetheless — in Geary County which is unchanged from last week.

The health department lists the county as having experienced 2509 cases of COVID-19 and 2453 recoveries in total since the virus first arrived in the community in spring 2020.

The Kansas Department of Health and the Environment lists the community as having had more cases of the virus than the health department does.

The KDHE lists Geary County as having had a total of 4,625 cases of the virus since the pandemic began.

This difference of 2,116 is accounted for by numbers from the Geary County side of Fort Riley according to the health department. Fort Riley does not report its numbers directly to the health department, but does report its numbers to the KDHE.

While Geary County lags behind a few other Kansas counties in terms of vaccination, the number of Geary County residents that have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has gone up and Geary County ranks third in the state in vaccination rate.

The KDHE now lists 450.1 per 1,000 people aged 12 and above have had at least one dose of the vaccine in Geary County — a total of about 10,828.

According to the KDHE, 9,127 people are fully-vaccinated against the virus in Geary County — 379.4 per 1,000 people.

The KDHE also tracks cases in each individual individual school districts. Currently, there are 20 presumed student cases with a presumed student incidence rate of 3 per 1000 students which is a big step down from last week.

Geary Community Hospital routinely releases its COVID-19-related numbers to the public.

According to the most recent update from the hospital, there are 3 COVID-19 patients in the ICU and one of them is currently on a ventilator. There are four COVID-19 patients hospitalized at GCH at this time, and all but one are unvaccinated.

In total, GCH is serving 13 patients at this time, including those who are there for COVID-19-related treatments and those who are in the hospital for other reasons.